


Learning to Fly

by Daegaer



Category: Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Airplanes, Alternate Universe - Human, Childhood, Children, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-09-19
Updated: 2003-09-19
Packaged: 2020-05-15 13:36:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19296829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: A side-scene to Ordinary People.Ezra as a small boy.





	Learning to Fly

Ezra clung to his father's hand, unwilling to risk being swept away in the crowd. All he could see were grown ups' legs, sober coloured trousers and bright skirts, the grown ups sometimes swirling apart to give him a glimpse of another child. He never got a chance to say more than 'hello' before the other child would be swept away by the tide of adults. He wasn't sure about this outing at all. He'd been promised countryside and fun and a picnic, but so far it had all been sweltering heat and grown ups and being towed around.

He wished he could have gone and played with the two little boys he'd seen being shooed round by their father. They'd looked just as hot and bored as he felt. They could have gone off and played Cowboys and Indians out of the way of the grown ups and had fun. They could have had ice cream. He'd heard an ice cream van the previous evening and had longed for a snowy white cone, but his mummy had said no. It was too soon after dinner and they'd had chicken. He'd felt it was very unfair. If he could barely remember the chicken, why should Mummy?

People were spreading blankets on the ground and sitting down. He hoped this wasn't the picnic. If so many people were having a picnic all in the same place his mummy would tell him not to run around in case he annoyed anyone. He sat obediently on the blanket and smiled at a little girl who was trying to escape her mummy's clutches. She stuck her tongue out at him, so he stuck his tongue out at her. Then he proudly showed off what he had just learned to do, and crossed his eyes. It was hard to remember how to do it, but you had to try and see the very tip of your own nose. The little girl giggled, so he did it again. She started picking her nose and got a half-hearted smack from her mummy. Ezra retreated behind _his_ mummy, out of range of grown up annoyance.

'What are you up to, rascal?' she asked, smoothing down his hair.

'Can I play with that little girl?' he asked, pointing at the girl who was deciding it was too hot to whinge about the smack.

' _May_ I. Later. Daddy wants to show you something.'

'What?' he asked excited, 'What, Daddy?'

'They have to get ready,' Daddy said. 'Look, here's a bottle of lemonade.'

He took the bottle, cap already twisted off and carefully put in the straw. He liked straws. They made it even fizzier. He drank the warm lemonade and plotted about ice cream. He'd tell Mummy that it had been a _very_ long time since dinner, and he'd had cornflakes for breakfast. He didn't think she'd mind because corn was a vegetable. He wondered why cornflakes weren't bright yellow. Maybe they got darker when they were squashed flat.

There was an announcement on the Tannoy, but he couldn't understand it. It sounded like the man was speaking underwater. He began to giggle. Maybe the man was having a bath while he made the announcement. The bubbles from the lemonade went up his nose, making him splutter. Then there was a loud banging noise and a roaring overhead, and he looked up in alarm. Daddy put an arm round him and pointed up.

'It's all right -- look! Look at the planes, Ezra!'

Ezra gazed upwards, mouth open in wonder, the lemonade bottle falling unnoticed from his hand. His whole vision and mind were taken up with the planes splitting apart the bright sky with their speed and sound. He wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. He wanted to understand what he was seeing. He wanted to be up in the bright, pale sky.

He _wanted._


End file.
